1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the art of fishing rods for casting having an open-face spinning reel and particularly to such spinning reels which have an automatic line pickup bail mechanism where heretofore the user manipulated the line pickup bail by use of his index finger on the same hand that held the rod handle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The most famous spinning reel in the United States, owned by more than 20 million fishermen, is the Mitchell 300 Series. An improved version of this is the Mitchell 440 Series which features the automatic line pickup bail such that when the reel handle is turned for retrieving the line the ball will normally swing from a forward position to a rearward position which causes an over-center linkage mechanism to lock the bail in this rear position. This Mitchell 440 Series spinning reel was designed to be operated by the user's index finger. The touching of the bail in its rear position would cause the over-center linkage mechanism to swing past center to the opposite over-center position such that when the user's finger was released from the bail, the bail would automatically open into its forward position during casting.
One recognized problem with the finger manipulation of the line pickup bail was that some user's were not adept in swinging the fishing rod handle at the same time that the fingers were manipulating the line pickup bail. Most anglers are better suited to operate a mechanism when the mechanism is in clear sight; for example, above the handle of the fishing rod rather than beneath the handle. The present invention was discovered to improve upon these special open-face spinning reels having automatic line-pickup bail release mechanisms by replacing the finger manipulation of the bail from beneath the rod handle by a thumb-operated touch rod.
No patents were found in the prior art after a careful patent novelty search through the files of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by the Applicant's representative.